Cavaliers 118, Magic 94
2013-02-24
Kyrie helped lead the Cavs to an easy victory against the Magic.
The Cleveland Cavaliers romped to a blowout against the Orlando Magic tonight, as Kyrie & Co. dished dimes and dropped buckets to the tune of a 24-point victory. The Cavs bench actually scored 59 points. Guess who else scored 59 points? The Cavs starters. That, ladies and gentlemen, is called a balanced attack. This balance, combined with some spectacular highlights, made the Cavs look like an elite team- which, to say the least, is a rare occurrence.
1st half:
The Cavs started off hot, and had a great first quarter. Kyrie Irving’s jumper is silky as hell. But it wasn’t just #2. Alonzo Gee started off hot as well. When Gee is hitting midrange shots, you know it’s a special night. Also, for the record, Marreese Speights has an underrated nasty streak. He absolutely loves throwing his body around in the paint and dunking on people. The second quarter was a little more up and down. Sure, the Cavs were scoring, but they were also allowing all of the following players to get buckets: Kyle O’Quinn, Dequan Jones (?), Beno Udrih, Aaron Afflalo, Andrew Nicholson. Yeah, yeah, Afflalo is underrated and Nicholson is a blogosphere darling.Who cares? The defense was truly awful, and the half ended in a tie. CLE 51, ORL 51
2nd half:
Alonzo G33 started off the half with five straight points in under a minute, and it was awesome. If he scored at that rate all the time, he could average 180 points per 36. Wow! The Cavs generally kicked ass in the third quarter, which is to be expected when the offense if being run through E’Twaun Moore. Also, who is Daquan Jones? Does anyone know? Anyway, the Magic hit a few shots to end the quarter down seven. Immediately after the fourth quarter started, C.J. Miles starting bombing from deep. He has a gorgeous stroke when he’s on. Within minutes, the Cavs were up fifteen and Kyrie (from the bench) started grinning ear to ear. The Herculoids were out in full force in the final frame, with Marreese Speights bullying everyone in the post. Also, Luke Walton should play back up point guard, for comedy’s sake and for comedy’s sake alone. Kevin Jones sighting! He has a nice jump shot. The Cavs ended this one smirking, with a 24 point victory. CLE 118, ORL 94
Highlights:
– Kyrie mostly played the facilitator tonight, which was a nice change of pace. We don’t usually see 12 point, 9 assist lines from him. And that off the backboard alley-oop to Alonzo was sweet. (Cue people saying that they can’t wait until it’s Lebron receiving those passes.)
– Alonzo and Tyler Zeller tie for player of the game honors, wherever such honors are handed out. Both of them played well on offense, and managed to shut down their assignments on the offensive juggernaut Orlando Magic.
– Dion: 5/16 from the field. Ugh.
– The Herculoids won this game. Shaun Livingston, Luke Walton– revelations. Wayne Elligton was solid.
– Tristan was pretty godawful tonight. He kept rebounding, though.
Cols,
Def not everyones favorite player, just because hes not yours doesnt me u have to hate on it all the time, damn u must be a miserable dude
Nope. You can’t give him credit when he has a good game.
Nope
Just pointing out that everyone’s favorite player isn’t that good.
Just re-watched the Orlando game and Speights loves bullying guys. He needs to go at Bosh tonight.
How does Zeller get boxed out on EVERY single rebound? His softness is starting to annoy me.
I’m sure your hoping for him to play badly against Miami so you can say, “I told you so!”
Cols, can’t you just enjoy the fact that Speights had a good game? He’s on the team you follow.
Tom
Agreed. Speights has only played one good game out of the last couple weeks.
Lakers win! Feels so weird being happy about that.
I was actually more excited about Ellington than Speights when the trade went down. Still am.
The guy literally never plays outside himself. He’s like a young Anthony Parker with a quicker release. He knows how to use screens to get open, he is unselfish, and he seems to play very good defense.
Cavs should make him part of the future. (It is worth noting that none of his career stats are really close to what he’s done since he showed up in the 216. His .645 TS is almost 100 pts higher than his career high -> .564)
I generally agree. The victory is owed to the bench and non-Tristan players.
But I would have been more concerned if he shot 2/10 instead of 1/5. 5 offensive rebounds + 3 assists in 24 minutes is a nice contribution.
Good work by the bench to hold it down so the starters didn’t have to come back in. Still hard to believe we got Speights, Ellington and a (protected) 1st rounder just for Leuer. Oh, and Selby too.
But laughing cavs- doesn’t that just indicate that other people stepped up (Ellington, etc.). It doesn’t mean that Tristan played well. The other Cavs played well enough to overcome TT.
Yeah, I thought Waiters was pretty effective, and his ability to score and distribute without turning the ball over cannot be overstated. It’s very impressive for a rookie. He still rotates too much when shooting. As for TT, he looked good rebounding, and never had a chance to turn around the offense in the 4th. One thing I noticed is that Orlando’s defenders were absolutely sitting on his right hand. There was one play where Vucevic gave him the entire left half of the basket to spin back too from the middle of the key, and instead of doing that,… Read more »
Side note, I think one of the Kentucky Big Shot Blockers (Noel/Cauley-Stein) will fall to us with the Lakers first round pick, As long as Oladipo/Porter/Shabazz are available with our first pick I think we keep it and take them. I hope we go Wing/Center, with our first round picks
Cavs offensive efficiency in the game was 132. For all the shots/points Tristan didn’t get tonight, it had little impact on the bottom line.
Kyrie from downtown
I was happy with how Dion played, just explaining the misses from in close
From ESPN: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/76873/porter-does-it-all-to-enter-wooden-race “Statistically, his season bears a striking resemblance to Syracuse’s Wes Johnson in 2009-10, a fitting comparison with the Hoyas travelling to the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Both averaged at least 15 PPG, 7 RPG, 2 APG, 1 SPG and 1 BPG while hitting half of their shots.” Yikes. Wes Johnson! Still. A lot will happen between now and the draft, and remember, the Cavs can catch a bit of luck and end up in the top 3 even without one of the 3 worst records. Don’t think that Dan Giblert won’t be hiring a voodoo lady named… Read more »
DeQuan played college ball for Miami (FL). He’s the guy that got the UM basketball team in hot water, one of his relatives supposedly asked for 10 grand for his commitment. The dude was crazy enough to drive around campus in a brand new camaro while under investigation. The Magic picked him up as an undrafted FA mainly because he can do stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjBZex8tMBI
did we all miss this, or just me?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-v_bdyDgL4
@grover
Yeah Porter has been my favorite for some time now. I think he’ll be a top 5 pick, and one of the best players in this draft. He can do everything
@Adam
Dion looked like he got hacked numerous times on his way to the basket. Ultimately, I’ll take a poor shooting night if all his shots were at the rim, with questionable non-calls, and if they led to so many Cavaliers offensive rebounds
Dion took 8 shots at the rim, directly or indirectly leading to 11 points, plus the 4 assists with 0 turnovers.
Yeah, trade up for Porter. I know Nate is a big fan.
Orlando is in full on tank mode, they run worse offensive sets then we did when Kyrie was out
Dion got hacked every time he went to the hoop creating all those misses, he was also screaming for fouls in a silent arena which was kinda weird how well I could hear him
the bench played really well in the second half letting everyone forget the 14? Point lead they gave up in the first
Game was pretty boring to be honest, Orlando wanted to lose
Going to be a Debbie Downer, just because I need to vent and I don’t know anyone outside this blog who would care- but the ability to take Otto Porter at #6 or #7 just vanished in a puff of smoke. He’s a possible top three pick now after yesterday. Grant is going to have to deal one of those stashed draft picks if he wants to trade up to get him.
Nice stat, Kevin. Dion really helps us when he drives. It is the the exact opposite of that truly god awful Mareese 3 at the end of the first half that led to a dunk. The Bench did a great job, but they didn’t win the game for us. Tyler’s 3rd quarter and Kyrie and Dion’s ball sharing is what one the game. Tyler played like a man in that 3rd quarter. Was about time. Orlando’s frontline absolutely destroyed us in the last game, so it was great to see our guys come back and shut their bigmen down. As… Read more »
Yeah…saying Tristan played godawful is completely overlooking his defensive effort.
As is my wont, I will defend Waiters, too. In addition to his 4 assists with zero turnovers, he had several Iverson-assists (missing a layup but drawing the big and allowing a tip-in). Actually, in a bit of an anomaly, 8 of his 11 misses were rebounded by the Cavs. His +22 lead the team.
Oh and Utah and Houston both lost last night. Come on Lakers!
Missed the game but just watched the NBA.com highlights. Wow. We look like showtime Lakers. Pump fake Zeller FTW.
The past two games the Cavs played two teams they are better than and should have beaten. I’d gladly trade both of those wins for a victory tomorrow.
“- Tristan was pretty godawful tonight. He kept rebounding, though.” I never get this from the blogosphere. If a guy plays well on offense, but doesn’t play well on defense, then he played well. But if its the other way around, then he played awful, and that’s the end of it. To me, both ends of the court are equally important. Thompson took a whole 5 shots, and even had he missed them all that isn’t enough to be considered god awful. He did, however, play stellar defense, and the front-court has played damn good defense the past two games,… Read more »